Tens of thousands bid farewell to Morgan Tsvangirai

World Water Day on the Web

In this edition: the run-up to Macedonia's elections; the Net opens the tap for World Water Day and Wikipedia, the internet encyclopedia, is at the movies.

ELECTIONS IN MACEDONIA

In Macedonia, the presidential and municipal elections held on Sunday were seen as a crucial test for this young democracy and its European future. The Web had mobilised for the event.

The organisation for security and cooperation in Europe, asked to observe the ballot, had posted this clip, calling women to vote in an independent way. The objective: to fight against the domestic vote, this being one of the irregularities noticed during elections last year.

At national level, the “Most citizens association” also monitored the ballot, thanks to about 4000 observers. On Sunday their site posted hourly reports from the various polling stations.

Apart from news on the elections, it’s the dispute with Greece that mobilised net users the most, as there is a region in Greece called Macedonia and the inhabitants wish to see the ancient Yugoslav republic change its name. This is seen as an attack on national identity by local net users.

WORLD WATER DAY

The net mobilised for World Water Day on Sunday - an event dedicated this year to trans-boundary waters.

A sandwich a day. That’s the principle of the blog Scanwiches. The site provides net users with scanned images of sandwiches - some more tempting than others - every day. Roast pork, roast chicken, tomatoes, mozzarella, mustard.... There are many variations on flavour and colour for an online gallery, which makes the mouth water.

WIKIPEDIA, THE MOVIE

Wikipedia, the film! The American director Scott Glosserman is making a documentary on the famous online encyclopedia. Entitled "Truth in Numbers ", it will tell how the founder put encyclopedic knowledge within reach of all, but also mentions the limitations of Wikipedia’s collaborative model. It's a model used by the directors themselves when they asked for donations from net users to finance the film.